In these different fields, an issue of prime importance is growing III-V semiconductor materials, that can be based on arsenic and/or phosphorous, with a very good structural quality (few defects of dislocation, twin, antiphase wall type).
These materials take on great interest for different applications such as, notably: field effect and high mobility transistors, emitters, detectors, modulators for photonics, components for photovoltaic devices or even terahertz components.
The creation of III-V semiconductor materials on Si substrate has been studied for many years and the difficulties linked to the growth are now clearly identified. In effect, they are due to the difference in crystalline structure, the great difference in mesh parameters and the difference in heat expansion coefficient between the layer and the substrate, the III-V layers on Si possibly containing numerous structural defects such as antiphase walls, extended dislocations, even cracks.
Two solutions, or a combination of these two solutions, have notably been proposed in the literature in order to obtain a layer of good crystalline quality on the surface in the case of a layer to be epitaxiated exhibiting a great difference in mesh parameter with its substrate. The first solution known as epitaxial lateral overgrowth, as described in the article by Zytkiewicz Z. “Epitaxial lateral overgrowth of semiconductors”, in: Dhanaraj G, Byrappa K, Prasad V, Dudley M, editors, Handbook of crystal growth, Heidelberg: Springer Verlag: 2010, p. 999-1039, (ELO), the diagram of which is given in FIG. 1, consists in growing, on a substrate, a first layer which exhibits a strong density of dislocations and then in continuing the growth through a mask, by lateral epitaxy, to obtain a top layer.
The second solution, as represented in FIG. 2, consists in trapping the emergent dislocations against the lateral walls of patterns of oxide, according to J.-S. Park, J. Bai, M. Curtin, B. Adekore, M. Carroll, A. Lochtefeld, Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 052113 (2007) (Amberwave), if the aspect ratio of these patterns is well chosen. The growth is done by selective epitaxy and the dislocations are then blocked against the walls of oxide.